The Mouse Bride

Once upon a time, there was a hard-working king with a big belly who had three very lazy sons. Growing up, all they would ever do was just lie about, yawning and never moving a finger to work. Not even a pinky!

As they got older and it became time for them to get married and have their own families to take care of, they realized that they were comfortable at home. If they were given the option, they’d really rather not look for wives or change anything about their lives.

Why would they want to change anything at all, when they had such a big palace to live in and so many servants to take care of them? They weren’t crazy - they were just lazy.

One day, the king decided that he had had enough of this behavior, so he called all three sons into his huge marble court. In front of everyone, he held up three sprigs of fresh thyme and said:

“Each of you will go find a bride in the direction in which I throw a sprig. Whichever one of you finds the cleverest wife will get half the kingdom!”

He threw the sprig for the eldest west, in the direction of a big farmstead, and so, too lazy to go any further, the son went to the rich farmer to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

It was barely a mile away, so he didn’t have to go far and he’d lucked out. She was kind and beautiful.

The second brother’s sprig was thrown east, in the direction of a peasant’s cottage, and, because he was just as lazy as his brother, he only went as far as the peasant’s house to find a wife.

The peasant’s cottage was also…